David Quinn
Ruling elites have to understand why they have alienated so many voters, writes David Quinn
The upcoming US presidential election presents an awful lot of Americans with a terrible dilemma; who to vote for? The problem is especially acute for Catholics. Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton will hold any real appeal for Catholics, as well as other Christians, who take their faith seriously. It is a choice between bad and worse.
Must a Catholic voter opt for the one they believe is the lesser of two evils, vote for an independent candidate or not vote at all?
If they vote for an independent candidate who has no hope of being elected, then they run the risk that the candidate they like least between Clinton and Trump will be elected instead. The same applies if they stay at home.
On the other hand, they may take the view that they have to send a message to both parties, thinking not about this election but a future one. If a lot of voters stay home in protest or opt for an independent candidate instead, they are telling the Republicans and the Democrats, “next time give us somebody better”.
Establishment
Donald Trump won the Republican party nomination in spite of the Republican party. He won because of a backlash against the party establishment. Almost none of the party’s leadership want him which is why so many stayed away from last week’s Republican party convention.
Hillary Clinton won in spite of an insurgency by party rebels against the party establishment. These rebels were led by self-proclaimed socialist, Bernie Sanders. Despite his age (he is 74), he attracted far more of the youth vote than Clinton.
In Britain, incidentally, the British Labour party, like the US Republican party, finds itself landed with a leader the party establishment does not want, namely Jeremy Corbyn.
So, rebels in the British Labour party won the day; likewise in the US Republican party. In the Democrat party, they were closer to winning than Hillary Clinton would have liked. She won her party’s nomination because her electoral machine was so big.
Brexit was also a vote against the establishment.
It is not good enough for the ruling elites in our various countries to simply condemn the revolt against them, to insist that it is all motivated by ‘hate’. They have to try and understand why they have alienated so many voters.
Many of those voters are working class. Donald Trump won the Republican nomination because of the votes of working class white men. Historically they have been Democrat party supporters but they believe that party has abandoned them for the sake of other causes like minority rights, and also for the sake of ‘big money’. They see how the likes of Hillary Clinton has huge support from corporate America.
They believe that the Republican party establishment is also captured by corporate American even though it is less beholden to minority groups. They believe Donald Trump, despite his fabulous wealth, is not the creature of ‘big business’ nor the creature of minority interests.
Trump’s policy platform has been widely condemned because of its attitude towards migrants. This is the main reason he attracts such criticism and it is a big reason why Catholics ought to be very reluctant to support him.
It is one thing to support controlled immigration, but his rhetoric has been completely overblown and whether or not he is a racist himself, he is certainly fanning the flames of racism. This makes him incredibly irresponsible.
But look at the rest of his policy platform. It is old-fashioned Democrat, not Republican. He is basically an old school Democrat, apart from the attitude to immigration.
He is fully in support of the welfare state and indicates no real desire to reform the system. He wants to increase state-subsidised child-care. He supports universal health cover.
On social issues, he really doesn’t care about abortion despite a comment here or there. He doesn’t care about gay marriage, he is not personally religious and is probably tone deaf to religion.
What he would probably do better than Clinton is put decent people on the Supreme Court. This is why one American friend of mine, whose opinion I respect, will hold his nose and vote for Trump in November.
Decisions
The Supreme Court makes incredibly far-reaching decisions, the effects of which last for generations. In 1973 it forced every state in America to recognise abortion-on-demand and more recently it did the same for gay marriage. President Hillary Clinton would appoint very liberal judges to the Supreme Court.
What about Hillary Clinton? There are many accusations made against her own ethical conduct, for example, using a personal email account to send and receive highly classified emails while Secretary of State.
On issues like abortion she is a disaster. She would be very bad for freedom of religion, further reducing it to freedom of worship only. Barack Obama is already well down that road and she will likely continue that legacy.
She is likely to push a pro-assisted suicide agenda, or at least do nothing to stop it. Christian colleges will likely be forced to recognise transsexuality in full, meaning they can no longer teach and act on the belief that the sex you are born into cannot be changed and that there are only two basic ‘genders’, male and female, not dozens, even if some men are more feminine than the norm and some women more masculine.
Obviously many Catholics will like her ‘social justice’ agenda but in truth, immigration aside, it is not so different from that of Donald Trump and it will not attract back the white, male working class voter who prefer the fact that Trump wants to restrict immigration and put curbs on free trade, unlike Clinton.
They blame mass immigration and free trade (that is, globalisation), for their loss of jobs and earning potential.
So, who should an American Catholic vote for in November? There is no absolutely right or wrong answer. It will come down to a prudential judgement.
I think in practice a big majority of all Catholics will vote Clinton and a smaller majority of Mass-going Catholics.
But I also think a lot will stay at home or vote for an independent candidates finding the two main ones on offer too unappetising.